Addressing the shareholders at Tata Steel's 101th annual general meeting here, the Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said this profit includes earnings generated by UK-based Corus even though it was having less margins as it was not having any captive resources of raw material.

''We want to change it, but it would take some more time,'' Mr Tata said, adding, ''the group is first trying to secure raw materials and will then look at ownership of raw material assets.'' Asked about the global slowdown impact, he said that the rising row material prices will exert pressure on input cost and the margins would be crushed. However, he declined to comment on the intensity of the impact.

In a release, the company said its net sales in the quarter rose to Rs 43,508 crore from Rs 31,162 crore a year before.